F 7Y 





014 078 669 A 



I- /«^ 
.L2 G6 
Copy 1 



wF 



A*r 



I 



^^ 19 



DELIVERED AT LANCASTER, 



FEBRUARY 21, 1826. 



IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 



^nt l^nn^vtXf anti iFifttetfi ^nn(ijet:fiiat» 



OF THE 



Wtnttnttion of tijat toton it>s tfte Kntrians. 



BY ISAAC GOODWIN. 



WORCESTER : 

ROGERS & GRIFFIN PRINTERS. 

1B26. 



(©mA^i®ir^ 



One hundred and fifty annual revolutions of the Sun have this 
day completed their circuit, since these beautiful plains were deso- 
lated by a cruel and unrelenting foe. The event marks a distinct 
era in our annals, and its anniversary is worthy of solemn com- 
memoration. From the sad recitals of that melancholy day, the 
heart of sensibility shrinks away intuitively, nor have we come 
hither only to feast the imagination upon those barbarous specta- 
cles. But, we assemble to pay a tribute of grateful remembrance 
to the memory of our fathers : to consider the great things they, 
under the guidance of the Almighty, have done for us : to contem- 
plate their multiplied toils and sufferings on our behalf: to trace 
the progress of our nation from its humble beginnings to its pres- 
ent exalted state of glory and happiness : to inquire from whence 
has arisen the fair and splendid fabric of social order and domestic 
quiet that protects our rights and cheers our hearts : to consider 
what is our duty as men and citizens : and what is the return we 
are to render for all these blessings. We have assembled where 
civilization, and learning, and Christianity were first planted in our 
flourishing and wide spread County, then an uncultivated waste 
and a howling wilderness. We behold the spot where our inter- 
esting local history commenced ; where a remnant of the Pilgrim 
band, who fled across the Ocean, the exiled heralds of truth, the 
champions of the Cros^ the asserters of the rights of conscience, 
the fugitives from oppression, set the bounds of their habitations, and 
found a refuge from their persecutors, and a home for their children. 

The history of our State is divided into four great periods or 
distinct eras, each comprising a space of half a century, and each 
commencing with some signal event connected with our glory and 
prosperity, and apparently essential to our national existence. 



Dating back two hundred years from the point where we now 
stand, we tind the settlers at Plymouth had just obtained a permck- 
nent tooting in the land, and had surmounted the peculiar obstacles 
incident to a colonial settlement upon new and original principles, 
on an untried soil, and in a climate to which Englishmen had been 
unaccustomed. At this juncture, we behold, from every part of the 
European continent, that illustrious band of Confessors, who had 
suffered from the persecutions of the British hierarchy, beginning 
to look to the western world for refuge and rest. The forlorn 
hope had been successful, and the ranks of the centre column were 
now filled with men of opulence and learning, prepared to found a 
powerful and lasting state. Endicott, and VVinthrop, and Johnson, 
with their illu^^trious compeers, " the sacramental host of God's 
elect," immediately begin to plant the settlements around Massa- 
chusetts Bay, and to subdue the wilderness beyond. In a few years 
the plantations had extended to this memorable spot, and as the 
emigrations from England had ceased, here were their limits. An 
uninterrupted peace prevailed, and their numbers and their power 
greatly increased. 

The second period commences with the Indian war with Philip 
in 1675-6. This contest scattered desolation and death through all 
the frontier settlements, and jeopardized the very existence of the 
Colony. It was followed by a series of similar conflicts, for the 
precise period of fifty years, until the treaty made with the Indians 
at Casco bay in 1726. This was literally a period of blood. The 
sufferings of the settlers were intense. A numerous foe was con- 
tinually hovering upon the frontiers, and the deadly blow of their 
vengeance was seldom fores-^en until it was felt. The progress of 
the settlements was suspended. More than 6,000 of the inhabitants 
had fallen by the sword. Many of the most flourishing towns were 
entirely broken up. A large public debt was accumulated. But 
the calamities of the public were trifling when compared with the 
miseries of the individual sufferers. " Their days were made 
heavy with anxiety, and their nights restless with visions of hor- 
ror." Their distempered imaginations constantly presented to 
their minds the sounds of savage yells in the bowlings of the tem- 
pest, and the whispers of proivling assassins in every rustling leaf 
The corruscations of the meteor were the lighting up of distant 
conflagrations, and their dreams were of wandering captivity, and 
of victims writhing in agony and expiring in torment. 

The third period, from the peace of 1726, is marked by a series 



of encroachments upon the rights of the people by the royal Gov- 
ernors, and of resistance upon the part of the oppressed. It little 
sufficed to satiate the demands of his Majesty's minions, that the 
people of Massachusetts had voluntarily expended their best blood 
and dearest treasures in extending the empire of their Sovereign, 
and in humbling his proud rival, France, by the reduction of 
Louisburg, and the conquest of the Canadas. It excited no relent- 
ings of tyranny, that one fifth of our population capable of bearing 
arms, was for successive years exposed to the horrors of the camp 
and the dangers of the field. No ! they were called to submit to 
measures the most odious, to principles subversive of their dearest 
rights and their chartered privileges. Blessed be God, the spirit 
that led our Fathers across the deep, still lived in the bosoms of 
their descendants. They resisted even unto blood, and the Inde- 
pendence of a great empire was the result of this resistance. The 
year 1776 marks the fourth era, the proudest in the annals of civ- 
ilized man. Since that period another half century has been added 
to the accumulating mass of years. It will ever be distinguished 
for its brilliant train of momentous events. It has beheld the con- 
summation of our Independence, the establishment of our federa- 
tive form of government, and the practical illustration of the prin- 
ciples of our fathers. It has beheld our beloved country rising 
with gigantic steps into maturity, and displaying to an astonished 
world the blessings of good government, and of opinions unshack- 
led by law. 

We are now entering upon the fifth epoch in our annals. It 
commences at a period of unexampled national prosperity, when 
our country, and those with whom she is connected, are in a state of 
profound peace ; when Commerce, and her sisters. Agriculture 
and Manufactures, are rapidly extending and improving, and, mutu- 
ally protected by the parental care of the government, are recip- 
rocally supporting each other, and pouring into the lap of their 
common mother the surplus of their abundance. Our times will 
also be distinguished, at least from all that have preceded it, for 
the singular circumstance, that our rulers are conducting the affairs 
of the country, and discussing questions of the highest importance 
to their constituents, uninfluenced by the bitterness of organized par- 
ties, and the confusion of contending factions. 

Our history acquires importance by time, and the apparent 
magnitude of its incidents increases in proportion as we recede from 
them. This has awakened a laudable curiosity to discover an ade- 



6 

quate cause for the mighty effects that we witness around us — this 
can only be found in the principles of our Ancestors, and their re- 
sults have been gradually unfolding, through all the successive 
years of our story. Anniversary celebrations, by presenting a knowl- 
edge of their events to the rising generations, have been found the 
most effe(itual means of aiding the records of the historian, and of 
recalling the feelings and principles they are intended to com- 
memorate. 

We hear with the keenest interest the story of our father's 
wrongs in their native land ; we sympathise in those sufferings and 
trials that induced them to abandon forever their native fields. 
Conscience had issued her stern mandates, and the Puritans were 
not the men to disregard her solemn injunctions. We follow them 
•with their wives and their children to the strand in full view of the 
perils of a tempestuous ocean. How have our hearts been elevat- 
ed with hope or depressed by anxiety as we traced their lonely 
ship across the billows of an untried sea ; the Mayflower cradled 
like the lone sea bird on the mountain wave, but laden with bles- 
sings that other gallant ship never bore ; with the constituent prin- 
ciples of an empire beyond the seas ; the germ of a government, 
from whence would spring civil and religious liberty, such as men 
had never before enjoyed, destined to spread its branches from the 
sea to the rivers, to protect and solace the millions, who would re- 
pose in its shade. The tie that bound the Pilgrim to his native 
land was now severed forever ; what remained to him of earth was 
now within his view ; the relics of property reserved from the 
grasp of avarice and tyrannical exaction; family and friends were 
now before him. But he had in expectancy a bright reversion in 
the wilderness beyond the seas, more valued than the cultivated 
plains of England, even a home where he could worship his God 
without molestation or terror; and he had, moreover, a yet brighter 
ho^e beyond the skies, dearer to him, than all the loved objects 
around him, or than all that earth could give. We follow our fath- 
ers in their wanderings around our coast, a coast at that inclement 
season, terrible by its ice clad rocks and snowy cliffs. We accom- 
pany them in their landing upon an inhospitable shore, dreary, 
houseless, and forlorn. We contemplate with reverence and admi- 
ration that stern resolution, that holy self denial, and that exemplary 
patience, which enabled them to persevere, and to place the lasting 
foundations of their State, through so many hardships, the dread of 
savage beasts and ferocious men, famine, pestilence, and death. 



Where is the American, who has not felt a glow of enthusiasm 
in listening to a recital of those events that led to our national 
emancipation ? Who can contemplate without emotion that illustri- 
ous band of Sages, Patriots, and Statesmen, who adopted the high 
resolve, that the American people were free and independent, and 
who through a dubious struggle redeemed the pledge they had giv- 
en to the world, that they would consecrate to the noble cause 
" their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors." 

These two events, although the most prominent in our history, 
and most frequently the themes of panegyric, were connected by a 
series of other incidents equally interesting, and if less splendid 
and imposing, will be found equally necessary to the consummation 
of our glory as a nation. 

At the landing of our fathers, most of the places where they set- 
tled were entirely abandoned and destitute of inhabitants. Nu- 
merous vestiges of a former population remained, but those parts 
of the country had been desolated by a sweeping pestilence some 
j'ears previous to the arrival of the English. Whenever any of 
the natives appeared to claim jurisdiction of the soil, treaties were 
entered into, and equal and honorable bargains were made for the 
lands. If, in any instances, the case was otherwise, the fault was 
not that of our fathers, for they then were weak and the Indians 
were strong. These contracts were mutually fulfilled during the 
lives of the contracting parties. By the immemorial usages of man- 
kind, however erroneous and unjust, these purchases were unnec- 
essary and altogether gratuitous, for without them, our claim to 
the soil was acquired by titles as fair and as indisputable as the do- 
mains of any other civilized nation. These bargains have been 
applauded by the most eminent writers upon the laws of nations, 
even by the French jurists,* as exemplary instances of moderation, 
and of a regard to equal and exact justice. If it is inquired wheth- 
er the Indian tribes were parties to these conventional laws of na- 
tions, we answer, that by their own rules of acquiring and holding 
property, that of immediate and actual occupancy, our right is at 
least as good as theirs. The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness 
thereof; its dominion was granted for the support of his intellectual 
creatures, and we know of the enactment of no moral law intended 
to defeat this great purpose of the physical creation. 

In this vicinity also, the Indians had been much reduced by the 
pestilence, and their destructive wars with the Mohawks. Over a 

*Vattel— Bbokl— ch. 18— sect. 209. 
LOFC 



8 

considerable region in the valley of the Nashua, Sholan claimed to 
be the Proprietor. He was Sachem of a tribe, formerly of consid- 
erable power, but at this time was tributary to the principal Saga- 
more of the Massachusetts. He had carried on considerable trade 
with the settlers of Watertown, for whom he had acquired great 
friendship. He invited them to occupy this territory, as being a 
place peculiarly fitted for a plantation. His offers were accepted ; 
and as early as 1643 the purchase was made. It was stipulated 
that the Indians should not be molested in their hunting grounds, 
fishing places, and planting fields. For more than thirty years the 
utmost harmony subsisted between them and the whites. We have 
no reason to believe that the natives had any cause of complaint 
against the settlers at Lancaster. In the mean time, Sholan, the 
friend and protector of our fathers in their weakness, paid the 
great debt of nature, and was succeeded by Matthew, his nephew, 
who pursued the same pacific policy towards the English. The 
next Prince was of an opposite character ; he joined with Philip in 
his rebellion, and afterwards expiated his crimes by an ignominious 
death. With this unfortunate Sachem, terminated the feeble em- 
pire of the Nashuas. The miserable remnant of the tribe dispers- 
ed, partly to the vicinity of Albany, and a part united themselves 
with the more powerful Penicooks. 

The sons of the desert were found by our fathers untamed and 
untutored, sometimes subtle and crafty, and sometimes simple and 
credulous. Laws were immediately enacted prohibiting any undue 
advantages upon the part of the whites in trading with them. Pur- 
chases of lands from them were void, unless made under the control 
of the Government. Men of learning and perseverance commenc- 
ed the benevolent task of rescuing them from their state of barbar- 
ity to the cheering light of civilization. The Scriptures and other 
valued books were translated into their language, a tongue to which 
the dialects of the learned bore no analogy, and a knowledge of 
which could only be acquired by submitting in unrepining conform- 
ity to savage customs, and brutal modes of living. These pa- 
cific measures were completely successful through the whole of 
he first period of the Massachusetts history. 

The Colony of Plymouth bordered upon the Narrhagansett 
bay. Those beautiful waters studded with a cluster of islands and 
fertile promontories. were peculiarly fitted for the residence of those 
children of nature. The western banks were at that time occupied 
by the warlike tribe of the Narrhagansetts. The Pawkunnawkets 



9 

held the opposite shore. They were then governed by Philip, a 
youthful, g-allant and ambitious Prince. A growing and rancorous 
animosity towards the English had long been cherished in the bo- 
som of this vindictive chief. He possessed sufficient political sa- 
gacity to foresee that the superiority of the Whites would soon un- 
dermine his power and dispossess him of his domains. His conduct 
had already awakened suspicions, and his motions were watched by 
the English. The wily King was at last unable to suggest any 
plausible reasons for his repeated warlike preparations. Without 
waiting for his allies, whom he had engaged in a general plot to 
exterminate the English, this self-willed victim of ambition flew to 
arms, June 24, 1675. 

His depredations commenced in his immediate neighborhood, 
but the flames of war almost instantaneously extended their ravages 
into Massachusetts. On the 24th of the following month his Nip- 
muc subjects made an attack upon Mendon, in this County, and slew 
several of the Inhabitants. This is said by the historians of that day 
to have been the first blood shed in the Massachusetts Colony, in a 
hostile manner. Philip fled before the vengeance of his pursuers, and 
was an outcast from his dominions for nearly a year. His mind was 
bent on the blackest deeds, and nothing could glut his vengeance 
but the blood of his enemies. With the most consummate wiles, he 
infused his spirit foul and dark into all the neighboring tribes he 
visited in his exile. In August, the Nashuas i^orgetting the aacient 
friendship of their fathers, consummated by so long an interchange 
of kind offices, led on by their newly appointed chief, who had im- 
bibed much of the temper of the Prince of the Wampanoags, made 
a desperate assault upon their neighbors at Lancaster, then in the 
unguarded and unsuspecting hours of sacred worship, and barbar- 
ously slaughtered eight of the citizens. 

The governments of the New England colonies were not uncon- 
cerned spectators of these outrages upon their borders. In the 
depth of a severe winter, a well appointed array made a desperate 
attack upon the strong holds of the powerful and perfidious Narrha- 
gansetts, and achieved a glorious and memorable victory, which 
manifested that the valor of Cressy, of Agincourt and Poictiers, had 
not deserted the Saxon race, even in a remote wilderness. 

Nothing now was wanting to arouse to the highest pitch of ex- 
asperation and frenzy the temper of the savage soul. The council 
fires were lighted through the wilds of North America, from the 
shores of the Narrhagansett to the frozen plains of Canada, from 



10 

the rivers of Penobscot and Sagadahock to the roar of the cataracts 
in the West ; from the thickest recesses of their morasses the in- 
cantations of their priesthood went forth summoning to arms. The 
spirits of their fathers howled in the blast, and shrieked for ven- 
geance. The foot of the stranger had polluted their consecrated 
groves, and had trod the ground hallowed by their sepulchres. 
The tempest of war moaned in the wilderness ; the rising mists 
rolled through their vales and settled on all their hills. Gathering 
blackness and vengeance in its course, the lurid storm was now pre- 
pared to burst its fury upon the inhabitants of this devoted spot. 
The wilderness from her boundless wastes " unfolded her widest 
gates and poured forth all her Kings." Headed by the master 
spirit of his race, an army of 1500 savage warriors, in five divisions, 
commenced their attack in as many several parts of the town. The 
peaceful slumbers of that ill fated morning were awakened by the 
horrid din of the war whoop, and the death cry of barbarian feroci- 
ty. The dismal glare of domestic conflagration reddened the hori- 
zon on every side, and from every glen and hill top around us, re- 
sounded the yells of savage vengeance, and the shrieks of the un- 
protected flying for shelter. Neither arms defended the valiant, 
nor submission the timid ; neither hoary age nor lisping childhood 
was spared ; the same blow that pierced the mother, transfixed 
also the infant in her arms. 

The details of that day of carnage and ruin are sufficiently fa- 
miliar to your minds. Sufiice it to say, that most of the unfortified 
houses were burnt, and the principal garrison, that of their Rever- 
end pastor, was besieged, and after a gallant and vigorous defence, 
was surrendered, rolling forth devouring fire, agonizing shrieks, 
the mangled brave, unprotected females, helpless children, the 
widow and her orphans. From the best authenticated accounts, 
fifty five of the wretched inhabitants were doomed to death or cap- 
tivity. One alone of that garrison escaped. Of the miserable sur- 
vivors, the men were reserved for the horrors of a lingering tor- 
ture, a fate that no submission, no rewards, entreaties, nor imprer 
cations, nor tears could avert. 

Twenty four of the women and children destined for the still 
more protracted sufierings of savage captivity, were hurried off to 
a hill, about a mile west of the village. On yonder snow clad emi- 
nence, female fortitude was sunamoned to its severest trials. The 
cup of human misery was not yet full ; something more appalling 
was wanted to complete the horrid picture. These wretched fe- 



11 

males had beheld their plantation, the fruit of an honorable pur- 
chase, its value enhanced by thirty years of toil, endeared to them 
by a thousand tender recollections, the natal spot of their children, 
and the sepulchre of many of their venerable fathers, all snatched 
from them in an unsuspecting moment. They had beheld the ruin 
of their firesides, their altars and hearths overrun by barbarians, 
possessed and destroyed by a ruthless foe. They had witnes- 
sed their dearest friends falling- victims to their valor and exertions 
in their defence, pouring out their blood like water, and sealing 
the constancy of their friendship by their precious lives. Night 
shut in ; and from that memorable height they could distinctly view 
by the glimmering light of the burning ruins, the rioting of the 
savages amidst their spoils, feasting upon their plunder, and cele- 
brating their triumph by the most frightful contortions and terrific 
yells. Nor was this all : the blaze of other fires than those from 
their ruined dwellings begin to light up the horizon : other sounds 
more heart-rending than the war whoop or the yells of the savage 
float upon the evening breeze, and vibrate upon the ears of the 
disconsolate captives. Wretched wives ! It is no effort of the im- 
agination that informs you whence proceed those shrieks of agony. 
You have already taken the last farewell of the objects of your 
dearest affections. Mothers ! Nought avails the courage of your 
sons ; their heroic valor will no more be displayed upon the high 
places of the field. 

By the light of the morning sun the captives were doomed to 
take a farewell of their beloved village. Behind was ruin and 
desolation ; before them were the silent horrors of an interminable 
forest; on either side, the taunting savage, triumphing in their dis- 
tress, mocking at their anguish, and heaping indignities and un- 
speakable cruelties upon those whose feeble natures were sinking 
beneath their accumulated sufferings. 

Of the awful captivity of nearly three months that ensued, the 
simple and pathetic details are already familiar to you and your 
children. The sufferings of the intrepid heroine of that melan- 
choly story, have already been consecrated by the tears of every 
succeeding generation.* Her fortitude and unwavering faith have 
called forth the admiration of many a generous and pious heart. 
Who does not feel an increased veneration for the Holy Oracles of 

* The -wife of the Rev. Joseph Rowlandson, the minister of the place, was 
among the Captives. She published a narrative of her sufferings after her re- 
turn, entitled the " Twenty removes of .Mary Rowlandson." 



12 

our faith, when we find them mitigating the bitterest griefs, and 
yielding comfort in the darkest hours of tribulation ? Timely aid 
arrived to rescue the remaining inhabitants of the town, who were 
conducted to a place of safety, when this, like all the other settle- 
ments of the County, was abandoned, and for a long time left in 
ruins. Silence and desolation again resumed their solitary reign 
over these beautiful regions. Even the savage foot trod not the 
neglected fields, and the bowlings of the bear and the wolf alone 
mingled with the murmurs of the Nashua. 

The death of Philip, in the following August, put an end to fur- 
ther hostilities. No records of modern warfare describe so great a 
proportional aggregate of suffering as these settlements then sus- 
tained. But the inhabitants became inured to the peculiar priva- 
tions and hardships of Savage wartare, which vvere of infinite impor- 
tance to them in their subsequent conflicts with the French and In- 
dians. From these wars their opponents always retired with great 
defeat and losses. The superior prowess of civilized life prevail- 
ed at length over the rude violence of barbarian warfare, and the 
ancient tribes of New England were erased from the list of na- 
tions. In 1680, the re-settlement of this town was commenced ; its 
sufferings from the Savages were renewed in the wars with the In- 
dians and the French that followed each other in quick succession. 
In each of these conflicts the Inhabitants had to mourn the loss of a 
beloved Minister, each cut off in the beginning of his days, and his 
usefulness, and "their sepulchres remain with us to this day." The 
year 1710 terminated the story of Indian warfare in this town. 
Since that period but few places have had more reason for grateful 
praise for the peace and harmony that has prevailed within their 
borders. In 1708, the Rev. Mr. Prentice was ordained as the 
Minister of this place. During the long period of 118 years, the pul- 
pit has been vacant but ten months, and but two other incumbents 
have filled the sacred desk. Through all those eventful periods, 
when other towns and churches were rent with dissensions, and 
brethren who had taken counsel together, and walked to the house of 
God in company, became estranged from each other, and when altar 
was set up against altar, no root of bitterness here sprang up to dis- 
tract and divide this people. No ecclesiastical councils have been 
here assembled to reconcile the animosities of contending breth- 
ren, or to heal the wounds of the Church : " no grey haired synods" 
to mete out the measure of their faith. Notwithstanding the re- 
peated diminutions of their extent by the formation of the several 



13 

ilourishing and opulent towns within their former territory, this 
place still stands the first in the vicinity in population, and still 
maintains the proud pre-eminence of Queen among these villages. 

Assembled from the various branches that sprang- from this an- 
cient stock, we congratulate the venerable Mother of our towns and 
our Churches, upon all the pleasing and interesting circumstances 
and contrasts suggested by this brief though imperfect retrospect of 
her history. We exhort you, fellow citizens, to a consideration of 
the high and awful responsibility imposed upon you by the present 
prosperous situation of our beloved country, and particularly the 
relation we bear to our fellow men of other climes, who are yet 
groping in ignorance, and bending beneath the yoke of slavery. 
Our lot is cast in an age pre-eminent above all others for high advan- 
ces in mental improvement. The Government under which we live 
is literally a popular Government, and upon the discernment of the 
people depends many of our important measures. Projects of in- 
ternal improvement, involving intricate questions of science, are 
daily presented for our consideration. The increase of the reading 
community demands for our public journals distinguished talent 
and laborious research, for these heralds of intelligence are now 
sought for by almost our whole population. We believe, there- 
fore, the time is arrived, having been accelerated by a rapid in- 
crease of means, when our public schools should be placed upon a 
more liberal and elevated foundation ; when high qualifications 
should be required in the instructers ; when more discrimination 
should be used in the selection of school books ; wlien a new zeal 
and higher interest should be felt upon the part of those who have 
the oversight of Schools. We are not desirous that all our young 
men should be educated as Statesmen or Philosophers. But no man 
is capable of acting in the selection of a ruler, unless he is 
acquainted with the principles of the Government that is to be 
administered. The general propositions of natural and moral 
philosophy are of importance to every citizen in his daily inter- 
course with his fellow men. 

Think not that I am undervaluing the first principles of educa- 
tion : these should be laid deep in the infant's mind, and he should 
be led on to further attainments by more time and more liberal ap- 
propriations than have hitherto been devoted to these important 
objects. 

I introduce this subject on this occasion, because I firmly believe 
it is the most useful improvement that can be drawn from the sub- 



li 

jects we have been considering. I name it in this place because 
this people have been among the foremost in the liberality of their 
appropriations for the education of their children both at public and 
private schools. The catalogues of our university for the last tea 
years bear ample testimony in support of this fact. 

It will little suffice " to build the tombs of the prophets, and 
garnish the sepulchres of the righteous," unless we imitate their good 
examples, and cherish their valued institutions. This is the most 
acceptable tribute we can offer to the memories of our fathers, and 
to this duty we are also summoned by a regard for posterity. The 
time and the place is fitted for high and decisive resolves. The 
ground we tread is holy, for it has been consecrated by the blood 
of heroes, of patriots, and of martyrs; beneath its turf are interred 
the ashes of the valiant defenders of our land, our laws, and our 
liberties : the air we breathe has been hallowed by the shrieks of 
widows, and the waitings of Rachels weeping for their first born. 

Fellow Citizens — We have thus traced the advancement of our 
country from its humble beginnings to its present state of opulence 
and power. We have seen the splendid fabric rising by regular 
gradations, under the hands of its master builders, from its lowly 
foundations, to a towering height of beauty and magnificence. We 
have seen it affording to our fathers and their descendants, through 
every succeeding generation, a resting place, safe and abidiug. 
For a growth so rapid and so vast other times furnish no analogy, 
and other regions no precedent. 

Is this the work of fancy ? Is it a chimera or a dream ? Is it a 
castle of enchantment called into existence by the fabled genii of 
romance, and to vanish again at the tomb of the mistic wand ? Is it 
a palace of frost, glittering and evanescent, like the splendid bau- 
ble of the Muscovite, " as worthless as it seemed intrinsically pre- 
cious?" — No, the progress of our country is no fantasy of the imagi- 
nation, for the registers of our fathers point to the origin of every 
column, and the names of its Architects start in bold relief from 
every pedestal. We have seen its Tuscan foundations laid low and 
permanent and unyielding as the soul of the Puritan, who freighted 
the unpolished adamant across the wave. We have witnessed its 
massy Doric columns, reared by unconquerable fortitude, and cement- 
ed by the blood of valor, by a race who followed the thorny path 
of the Pilgrim in the wilderness, who forgot not their fathers and 
remembered the inestimable price of their purchase. We have 
seen the third race continue the growing pile by the tall and grace- 



15 

ful Ionic, whose lofty elevations exposed the edifice to the view of 
the nations, and rendered its sacred treasures the object of cruel 
rapacity. But from its vistas and its inmost recesses poured forth 
legions of armed men, who manfully repelled the insidious designs 
of its aggressors, and stripped the cumbrous Gothic appendages, /'t*-*'^'" 
defaced its beauty, and marred its proportions. Left in possession 
of its friends, already have they erected the majestic ranks of Cor- 
inthian columns, attracting the wonder of an admiring world. Al- 
ready is it enriched with the tributes of science and the arts. To 
its spacious Courts is attracted the wealth of every land, and the 
spoils of every sea. Laden with treasures of barbaric gold and 
eastern gems, the Merchants from afar flock to its light. 

On us devolves the duty of advancing the destinies of our be- 
loved country ; of increasing the ascending pile by columns of sur- 
passing strength and splendor, mingling her glories with the skies, 
blending her fame with all that is grand and august, extending the 
knowledge of her freedom and her faith to the oppressed and be- 
nighted of all nations; of adorning her columns with trophies of 
science won by peaceful conquest from ages far distant and climes 
remote ; of defending from profanation her altars and her laws, 
and in preparing her sons to be as pre-eminent in moral and intel- 
lectual attainments, as they now are, in the blessings of good Gov- 
ernment. Thus may our land become the glory of the whole 
earth : 

" Unbounded be her joy, and endless her increase ; 

" Praise be in all her gates, and on her walls, and in her streets, 

" And in her spacious Courts, be heard Salvatien/' 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



014 078 669 P 




-/ 



/^ ? 7 r " 






/y -^ 



7/-^. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 078 669 A 



